Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.3)

JOURNAL OF CHARLES DARWIN, M.A., NATURALIST TO THE BEAGLE. CHAPTER I. Porto Praya — Ribeira Grande — Dry and clear atmosphere — Effect of lava on calcareous beach — Habits of Aplysia and Octopus — St. Paul's rock non-volcanic — Incrustations and stalactites of phosphate of lime Insects first colonists — Fernando Noronha — Bahia — Extent of granite — Burnished rocks — Habits of Diodon — Pelagic confervse, infusoria Causes of discoloured sea. ST. JAGO CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS. Jan. 16th, 1832. — The neighbourhood of Porto Praya, viewed from the sea, wears a desolate aspect. The volcanic fire of past ages, and the scorching heat of a tropical sun, have in most places rendered the soil sterile and unfit for vegetation. The country rises in successive steps of table land, interspersed with some truncate conical hiUs, and the horizon is bounded by an irregular chain of more lofty mountains. The scene, as beheld through the hazy at- mosphere of this climate, is one of great interest ; if, indeed, a person, fresh from the sea, and who has just walked, for the first time, in a grove of cocoa-nut trees, can be a judge of any thing but his own happiness. The island would generally be considered as very uninteresting ; but to any one accustomed only to an English landscape, the novel V'^L. III. B